I'm an Electrical Engineer working for an MEP design firm in Vegas and I can tell you its bad out here. A lot of guys/gals moved out of state to find work. I know at least 5 ME's out of work right now that are trying to stay in town, and a bunch more EE's.

I've seen all sorts of degreed M and E engineers right out of school and they cant find jobs at all. I've had some offer to work for just for the experience. No one wants to train, especially in this economy.

On topic: Patiently waiting.....

I think Vegas has been hit worst than most other states. I saw my house go from 520k to 450k to 220k. How about 170k for a foreclosure in the neighborhood. Some people start crying over losing 10 percent. Dont come crying at my house. During the peak we had engineers all over 6 figures, and designers making 70-100k range. Everyone that I know has pretty much taken a 40 to 50 percent or so cut in pay when you include benefits (or lack thereof), again thats if you can find a job. If you check the want ads you will see architects offering autocad drafting jobs for 9 bucks an hour.

Yeah 9 per hour isn't bad for anywhere in Alabama. I would enjoy the job. I've worked 4 jobs and never made that much. Only twice have I made more than minimum. I'm only 22 though.

The MA bashing is kinda weird. They overcharge and they make false claims. They get big annoying ads in rc magazines. They burnt a couple of guys years ago on RCM. The biggest(longest) threads on this forum are what? MA bash threads. Its weird. lol

And a couple Maxx build threads..... :whistle:

Just tell them to join the military.

Hmm, that's not too bad. For a married, two-income couple w/ professional degrees, lets say a combined income of 120K. The taxes are almost exactly the same. However, that doesn't acct for all the exemptions, deductions, and other taxes. We also have a payroll tax of 2%(?) on the first ~$100K to fund the gov't pension program for the elderly (social security,) OTOH we get large exemptions for home owners, such as being able to deduct the interest paid on morgages. Alot of the game is hitting these to get taxes down. Sure its the same there, but don't know specifics.

My wife and I both have good jobs and end up in the upper income percentiles (we're not rich by any means, and having two young kids makes us feel broke all the time, lol ;) ) but are federal tax rate ends up close to 20% or so.

Need to add in state taxes and property taxes which I'm guessing are higher in the USA.

You know thats right....!! :oops: :lol::yipi: I should have quit years ago and got a Mugen or Losi 8t. lol

There's more;

-Australian employers are required to make compulsory minimum 9% superannuation payments based on a 38hr week

-Most industry awards require overtime payments (1.5 x hourly pay rate) after 38 hrs worked

-Most industry awards incorporate penalty rates, allowances etc for respective tasks or situations

-Govt income tax rebates calculated on variable criteria

However as BIG-block mentioned cost of living needs to be applied also;

Sydney (for example) is apparently the 17th most expensive city
San Fran is the 95th
NYC is the 33rd

(http://www.xpatulator.com/outside.cfm?page=Locations internet compilation + ranking of 300 international cities)

I know for sure the cost of living will increase sharply in the next few weeks as we pay more for fresh food after the floods. Retailers win - farmers + consumers get screwed

Ps this is now a much more interesting thread...

Not that big of a deal huh...

And BTW, they burnt more than a few of us.

And everyone loves to beat a dead orse, especially here. Where have you been? If you check the number of builds is kinda low on the forum compared to a few years ago. So we have to have something to do, and beating up on MA is kinda fun in a SM kinda way...

As for the crawler guys liking MA packs, just commenting on what I have seen. Maybe they got wise and started buying the better stuff that HC sell.

Alls good in the end.
 

Yea thats my thinking on this to. In the end as people keep getting burned by MA and the markets opens up with more and more options, MA will eventually suffer for the lack of concern for customer support, service, and providing a good quality product. Not to mention false advertising in trying to project an image that their Lipos are so much better than everyone elses. What we know now will sooner or later trickle into the open for everyone to sift through and realize what a waste of money it was investing in their products. At least they will never be able to say that they had no idea that what they were doing was such a bad thing. This thread is a testiment to their sins and an obvious chance for them to repent and fix the problem, and yet they ignored it thinking that they could just keep getting away with poor marketing practices that mirror so many scams seen in our hobby today.

I've seen all the threads. I know its not new. My post is in response to all the mega long threads. You are right I suppose there is not much to do. This is a sad thought, thinking that brushless doesn't have that underground devious feel anymore. It was such a thrill to show up at a track with a "flashlight" and hear "my T-Maxx goes 80mph" that E-Maxx prolly can't do 20!" Backflip Jaw drop. And I'm just talking about V3 release time really. I know alot of you guys were around before the mmm and lipo. When brushless was like really underground and exotic. Now all the RTRs are BL and easy. Not much is left uncharted.

Maybe this MA thing will get somewhere. :na:

Yeah, I glossed over that as they are quite variable from state to state (eg from 0-10%+ state sales tax, some states no income taxes) and I have no idea is if Oz has VAT taxes, fuel taxes, prop taxes or other such little taxes that rack up. Gets to be bit of a mess.

I do wonder what the overall tax burden would be if you added all that stuff up.

There is still plenty of uncharted BL stuff. Like 1/5 scale for example. Mot much going there save for the baja and the newest CC stuff. Anything else and you get to make your own. Bring a converted 4x4 5th scaler that does 60mph to your track and really watch some jaws drop...